When the ancestors of the first humans appeared on Earth, it was not empty. It was inhabited by many, many species of plants and animals. And there was SOMETHING and SOMEONE …
The Fire Serpents are “devils who fly and tempt women. They scatter like sparks over the pipe, penetrate through it and appear in the hut in the guise of a handsome guy or the deceased husband of the mistress of the house"
In the mythology of the Slavic peoples, there is a little-studied motive about the Fire Serpents. Historians of the 18th century noted that in the beliefs of Russian peasants, Fire Serpents are “devils who fly and tempt women. They scatter like sparks over the pipe, penetrate through it and appear in the hut in the guise of a handsome guy or the deceased husband of the mistress of the house."
They even have their own names. In the Smolensk and Ryazan regions, the serpent is called Lyubak, in the Oryol region - Volokita, in the Tambov province Lyubostay. In the Yaroslavl and Vladimir regions there is a belief about the raid of evil spirits in the form of a huge fiery broomstick. They are believed to visit people yearning for the deceased. The Fire Serpents are attracted to the excessive grief of widows. Sometimes children are born from people and the Snake, but usually they do not live long or become sorcerers.
In the Samara region, there is a belief about people talking with snakes. It was possible to stop and subdue the Fire Serpent by telling him "Tprrrru!" After that, he revealed to man the secrets of the Earth and Heaven, the past and the future. Letting go of the Snake, it was necessary to tear the shirt down on oneself from the gate (otherwise the Snake would not fly away and destroy the person who stopped him).
According to the mythological ideas of the old residents of the Samara region, somewhere in the east of the region there is a "special mountain" - Shikhan Mountain. Translated from Mordovian, it means "shaman's oath". There are lakes around. The Spirit of Water dwells here. Having performed a certain ritual, he can be asked to cause rain in a dry summer, or, conversely, to stop it in a damp summer.
Before the revolution, locals used to go to the lake to pray. The place where the spirit dwelt was marked with a stone. On it, offerings were left: bread, salt, honey. There were ruins near the lake. Old-timers called them "Stepan Razin's dugout." (Stepan Razin in the Middle Volga region is a collective image, and has a very distant relation to its real prototype. In the local tradition, this is a sorcerer, a werewolf.)
After the revolution they stopped walking up the mountain. The sacrifices ceased, and the angry spirit poured out the lakes and turned them into swamps. And wild pigs (boars) settled on the mountain, attacking the person disturbing their property.
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On May 28, 1984, a group of researchers went in search of the mystical mountain. They quickly found a vault made of hard quartz rocks covered with a thin layer of sedimentary layers. The summit is overgrown with forest. Strong humidity, dense thickets, an abundance of insects made it difficult to search. Local residents refused to be accompanied to the mountain, citing their fear of wild boars. A survey of local residents suggested that the “abandoned spirit” had left these places.
The next expedition took place in the northwest of the Samara region, where beliefs about the Fire Serpents have also been preserved. Ethnographer Kirill Serebrenitsky volunteered to accompany the scientists on this trip.
It is hard to believe that in our times, almost untouched corners of wilderness have been preserved near large cities. They are popularly called the Volga Alps. These are gloomy beautiful, silently fabulous places. In the geological past, the ancient Tethys Sea raged here, and the current rocks were islands protruding from the water. The locals have dark legends associated with these places. As if evil spirits inhabit these rocks, forests and swamps. In the nearest villages, only four houses remained inhabited, where eight Chuvashes live.
Kirill Serebrenitsky found out that almost all of them who at least once visited these swamps at night saw wandering lights - flying evil spirits. They call her Pata Kabusha. Or another sound, more ancient - Patavka-bus - "flying head". Later, returning to Samara, Serebrenitsky consulted with the Cheboksary ethnographers and learned that the word "patavka" in the modern Chuvash language still does not have a translation. The closest to him "pudovka" means "old pood bucket". It turns out that Pata-Kabusya is a "flying head" in the shape of a pood bucket.
According to ancient beliefs, Pata-Kabusya lives in a large moss bog - a strangely preserved relic of a long past ice age. If in the village someone dies a violent death and is buried according to the rite, Pata-Kabusya can fly. “The sheaf of fire flies in the form of a serpent, the head is thick and thinner towards the tail and flies straight to the village …” There he supposedly revives the dead man, and then, leading him around the neighborhood, takes him to his swamp. Nobody sees him (the deceased) anymore.
After exploring the swamp, the researchers felt a certain gloomy, pernicious spirit of these places. Old-timers remember that quite recently in these parts lived "talking" with snakes. They said that “according to the beliefs of the inhabitants of the North of our country, flying fireballs are a type of witchcraft corruption. Such balls, iridescent with all the colors of the rainbow, are sent by sorcerers to a person whose name begins with the letter they have chosen. The balls scattering on their prey cause dangerous diseases. " The sorcerers who mastered this art (and among them, of course, Stepan Razin is called), lived in the Stone House (a rock of a peculiar shape), somewhere in swamps and in branched caves stretching for tens of kilometers and overlooking the Volga.
After questioning local residents, the scientists moved towards the caves. We walked through an old pine forest. Soon the surface layer of the soil disappeared, exposing the bedrock. Huge cracks cut through the massif, opening access to the depths of the earth. Lack of time did not allow me to thoroughly examine everything. We found only one cave, from which the cold was noticeably drawn. Having squeezed there, the members of the group fell into some underground well, three meters deep. The further path was blocked by a large sharp stone. Without special preparation (excavation and removal of interfering stones) it was impossible to go further. So these caves are still waiting for their explorers.
Ethnographers note that by the beginning of the 20th century, adherents and keepers of almost all the main secret and apocryphal teachings of Russia gradually gathered in these places. What attracted them here? Perhaps the active energy of these places …
A number of theosophists of the 19th and 20th centuries wrote about several intelligent races that preceded the appearance of man in their evolution. According to their information, the first races did not have a solid body, but were "fireballs". Perhaps the last of them are a kind of relics of bygone eras and are known to us as our Pata-Kabusi, or Fire Snakes. Taking refuge in special energy points of the planet, they are limited in their capabilities and need the help of other intelligent beings.
There are many reports of observations of fireballs sticking to the wires of high-voltage power lines. It can be assumed that mysterious ball lightnings are underdeveloped young individuals, representatives of energy forms of another life. Well, maybe soon the time will come for a closer acquaintance with them …